Mankind has employed the archery bow for thousands of years, not only as a weapon, but for hunting purposes and for engaging in target shooting. While no longer used in warfare, the bow is still extensively used in hunting and for target shooting, both kinds of activities requiring a high order of accuracy for success and enjoyment. As will be readily understood, the achievement of shooting accuracy requires the exercise of a variety of skills including such things as concentration, shooting form, the ability to correctly estimate windage and distance, as well as other abilities.
Also important, however, is the nature of the equipment employed by the archer, and in this regard, it is essential that all components making up the archery equipment be in precise adjustment if maximum results are to obtained.
Although as indicated, archery has long been practiced, archery equipment has become relatively sophisticated over the years, due to the intense interest in excelling on the part of those engaged in the sport. Thus, common archery accessories now include such things as peep sights, adjustable metal string nocks, stabilizing arrow rests and cushion plungers, and a host of other similar features.
With respect to arrow rests, such devices are attached to the handle of the bow to provide support for arrows placed on the rest during shooting so that instability due to the forces imposed on the arrows by the bow string during the act of launch can be dampened. Such rests commonly consist of arms of various shapes, positioned parallel to the longitudinal axis of the arrows placed thereon. Some of the rests are spring-loaded to provide a restorative force capable of correcting arrow deflection during launch resulting from the forces referred to above. In this regard, at the moment of release of an arrow, the force imposed by the string propelling the arrow tends to deflect it causing the arrow to bow along its longitudinal axis. The biasing force of the spring serves to counteract and dampen vertical distortions of the arrow, providing it with accuracy-enhancing stability. Frequently, a spring loaded device termed a "cushion plunger" is positioned against one side of the arrow to furnish a biasing force that promotes stability of the arrow in the horizontal plane.
While contributing to flight accuracy, many arrow rests of the type described have heretofore had the disadvantage of being specific to the physical characteristics of arrows with which they were used. In this regard, depending upon their intended use, arrows are fabricated from a variety of materials, in various lengths and diameters, and they often have widely varying weights. For example, hunting arrows, commonly range from a weight of about 350 grains to about 700 grains, while fishing arrows of up to about 2000 grains are not unknown. While such diversity assures the shooter of the best arrow for the intended purpose, it forces a compromise in selecting a spring to generate the force required to satisfactorily bias the arrow rest. In other words, with a particular spring, the arrow rest exerts an optimal biasing force for a particular type of arrow, thus necessitating the substitution of springs having different force values to accomodate shooting style preferences, and changes of arrows.
Furthermore, in the rare instance where some force adjustability of the spring has been provided, the spring has been mounted in an exposed position, making it vulnerable to disabling accumulations of dirt and debris and otherwise encouraging functional interference.
A further disadvantage of arrow rests of the type described is that over time, their continued frictional contact with arrows launched over them gradually results in wear of the arrow rest surface contacted by the arrows during launch. Such wear is disadvantageous in that it can adversely influence positioning of the arrow on the rest and otherwise interfere with the arrow's flight dynamics.